Feeling of Distance and Time
THINGS ARE REVERSED WHEN IT COMES TO DISTANCES. EUROPEANS WOULD TEND TO THINK THAT DRIVING 100 KM IS QUITE A LONG WAY, WHILE FOR AMERICANS THAT WOULD BE RATHER NEAR. THIS IS DUE TO THE MUCH HIGHER DENSITY OF POPULATION IN EUROPE, AND THE SMALLER SIZE OF EUROPE.
IN EUROPE THEY USE TIME COUNTING FROM 1 TO 24. FOR EXAMPLE, WHEN THEY SAY 1 PM IN THE USA, in the Europe it would be 13:00 or 11:15 pm in the USA means 23:15.
Cars
Almost all Europeans have cars with manual gears, while Americans have a marked preference for automatic ones.
Measure system
All Europeans use the metric system (metres, grammes, litres, Celsius, etc.). Although Americans do learn it at school, the vast majority of them still use the old English Imperial system (yards, miles, pounds, Fahrenheit, etc.).
Date Systems
Europeans write the date in the format "DAY MONTH YEAR", whereas Americans use "Month Day Year". Americans usually consider the week starts on Sunday and ends on Saturday, while in Europe it always starts on Monday and finishes on Sunday.
Schooling
Schools and Universities are free in most Europe countries. Europeans see University as granted, while American families often have to save for years for their children to attend one.
Food
Europeans eat more varied and balanced meals (especially in southern cultures) and less fast food than Americans (except maybe the Brits). Europeans eat more cheese (not just French!), more yogurts, and on average drink more wine and stronger beers than Americans. Also, it still seems distasteful for me to eat pancakes, omelet and bacon together and pour it all with syrup.
Aren't the differences between the U.S. and the rest of the world interesting? America is a great place to live but you really get a different perspective when having lived abroad. It's such a shame health care and university educations are so expensive here. You can see there really is no good reason for it when so many other countries give these things to their citizens as entitlements.
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